Triple A Academy (An Equestrian Story)

testing testing

Once everyone had settled into their groups Mr. Carter lead us into the arena, where there was a groom standing with a beautiful dapple gray horse. "Today, I will be observing your basic skills around the horse. You will each take turns demonstrating a few simple tasks around the horse so that I can make sure I have placed you in the correct group. We will start off with grooming & wrapping the horses legs" I chuckled a little bit, easy stuff. "The order of go will be Matt, Denise, Allie, Jake, and then Amber" Third, right in the middle. Perfect. I watched as the first two went, observing what Mr. Carter was taking notes on and how the others were doing. Matt was fine up until he wrapped the polos the wrong way, but he realized his mistake and corrected it so im hoping he didn't get too many "points" off for that, and Denise did everything pretty much perfectly. Finally it was my turn to go, I was nervous but I mean this was basic horse skills I knew all of this. I went through a basic grooming routine; curry comb, hard brush, soft brush, hoofpick, mane comb etc before I started wrapping, making sure to wrap away from the tail and keeping the pressure even throughout. At the end I was pretty pleased with myself, after all I'd been polo'ing for years. 

The last 2 were fine as well, no major errors (or any from what I could see). We all stood patiently waiting for Mr. Carter to tell us what was next. "Good job everyone. I want you all to go into the barn where you will find a horse waiting on the crossties, and you will be teaching me how to tack up". We walked into the barn to find a really cute little quarter horse waiting for us. "Now, the goal of this is to teach me, a 'complete beginner' how to tack up a horse. You will work as a group to ensure that I do this safely and properly. All of my tack is out here, you simply need to instruct me." We all nodded at eachother and decided we would each take turns giving him directions, and I decided to go first. "First you have to take the saddlepad, which is the cotton square pad you see there, and lay it just slightly before his withers, and then slide it down just on top of his withers so that the hairs on his back lie smooth" Mr. Carter looked at me, smiled, and then nodded for the next person to go. Jake decided to go next. "Next you will take the half-pad, which is the white fluffy pad you see over there , and lay it directly on top of the saddlepad." After about half an hour the horse was fully tacked up and ready to go, and we didn't make any mistakes either! I was proud of our team, we worked together really well. 

"Well class, that was very well done. Now your last task is to show me that you can all properly lunge a horse. Duke here is great at lunging and will give you no troubles, I just want to make sure that you are all able to do it." slowly but surely we all took turns taking the lunge line & whip and taking Duke through the walk trot and canter on the lunge. Everyone passed that, it was pretty easy, especially with the way Duke listened, and we barely had to use the whip, he only needed a gentle flcik along with a voice command. 

When we had finished Mr. Carter asked us all to come into the riders lounge. "Congratulations everyone, you have all passed the test. We will meet here again tomorrow. Please go into the barn now and join everyone so I can begin assigning riding groups." Amber, Matt, and I all linked arms and walked into the barn where everyone was standing around, waiitng for Mr. Carter I suppose, who walked in right after us. "This year we have 1 beginner lesson, 2 intermediate, and 2 advanced. Those in the advanced lesson will have the oppurtunity to try out for the show team, however there are only 5 spots, meaning only half of you will get in." I looked at Amber and squeezed her hand, we were both hoping to make it. Matt was in an intermediate lesson since he had only started riding english this year, but who knows maybe he'll get moved up next semester! "Those who do not have your own horse here and are leasing one from the school will please follow me into the arena so we can begin evaluation. Those with your own horses will please tack up and be ready in half an hour." On that note, all three of us set off into the boarders barn to get our horses ready.